Americans United - Ellery Schempphttps://www.au.org/tags/ellery-schempp
enFifty Years Of Freedom: Celebrating The Supreme Court’s Decision Against Coercive Religion In Public Schoolshttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/fifty-years-of-freedom-celebrating-the-supreme-court-s-decision-against
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Nothing in the Supreme Court’s Schempp ruling banned truly voluntary student prayer or reading of religious texts. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Fifty years ago today, the U.S. Supreme handed down one of its most important church-state rulings. In <em>School District of Abington Township v. Schempp</em>, the high court ruled 8-1 that state-mandated programs of Bible reading and prayer in public schools are unconstitutional.</p><p>Five decades later, the ruling in <em>Schempp</em> (and its companion case, <em>Murray v. Curlett</em>) remains widely misunderstood. Part of this is due to a deliberate campaign of misinformation by Religious Right groups, which have distorted the scope of the decision.</p><p><a href="https://www.au.org/church-state/may-2013-church-state/featured/ellerys-epic-exploit">An article I wrote</a> recently for <em>Church &amp; State</em> attempts to set the record straight by giving some background about the <em>Schempp</em> case. It’s important to remember that the religious exercises in Pennsylvania, where the Schempp family lived, were in no way voluntary. Ellery Schempp got the case rolling by silently reading a copy of the Quran during the morning devotional. Even though Schempp wasn’t doing anything disruptive, he was sent to the principal’s office.</p><p>Nor were these practices “non-sectarian.” Pennsylvania law required daily readings from the “Holy Bible,” which was interpreted to mean the King James Version. The prayer recited was the Protestant version of the Lord’s Prayer. (Even if the prayers had been non-sectarian, they would still have been a problem for lots of students.)</p><p>Nothing in the Supreme Court’s ruling banned truly voluntary student prayer or reading of religious texts. Students can engage in those activities today as long as it’s during their free time and they do so in a non-disruptive fashion. In secondary schools, students can even form religious clubs (again entirely voluntary) that meet during “non-instructional” time.</p><p>The <em>Schempp</em> ruling also did not ban teaching <em>about</em> religion in public schools. Instruction about religion as an academic subject is permitted. Teachers are free to objectively discuss how religion affected history, its impact on art, music and literature and so on. The goal must be to teach, not preach.</p><p>Unfortunately, many Americans continue to be misled by Religious Right propaganda over prayer in schools. A <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/13/south-carolina-valedictorian-reignites-debate-on-prayer-in-school/">recent survey</a> by the Pew Forum found that 57 percent of respondents say they oppose the school prayer rulings. (Thirty-nine percent say they approve.)</p><p>There is hope, however: The Pew survey found stark differences among age groups. Generally speaking, the older an American is, the more likely he or she is to oppose the school prayer rulings. Pew found that 71 percent of people aged 75 or older oppose the decisions. Among people aged 18-29, only 38 percent express opposition, while 56 percent express support.</p><p>At the Religious Right meetings I attend, I often encounter older folks who pine for official school prayer. They assert that no one ever complained or that it was a good way to get the kids to settle down. They speak fondly of the religious exercises they participated in years ago.</p><p>It’s easy for them to say that because the prayers being recited were prayers from their faith tradition. They seem utterly incapable of understanding why someone of another faith (or no faith at all) might object. What they are really longing for are the days when the majority called the shots in matters of religion, and dissenters didn’t complain because they were afraid to.</p><p>We are a different nation now. All the polls show skyrocketing religious and philosophical pluralism. Any attempt to enforce a uniform theology in our public schools is doomed to failure.</p><p>As the Supreme Court made clear 50 years ago, the right of conscience is too precious to be left to the whims of government officials.</p><p>In his <em>Schempp</em> <a href="http://www.oyez.org/cases/1960-1969/1962/1962_142">majority opinion</a>, Justice Tom Clark quoted Justice Robert Jackson, who, in a previous decision, observed, “The place of religion in our society is an exalted one, achieved through a long tradition of reliance on the home, the church and the inviolable citadel of the individual heart and mind. We have come to recognize through bitter experience that it is not within the power of government to invade that citadel, whether its purpose or effect be to aid or oppose, to advance or retard. In the relationship between man and religion, the State is firmly committed to a position of neutrality.”</p><p>That was good policy 50 years ago. It has only gotten better over time.</p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/school-prayer">School Prayer</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ellery-schempp">Ellery Schempp</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/school-prayer">School Prayer</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/supreme-court">Supreme Court</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/pennsylvania">Pennsylvania</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/pew-forum">Pew Forum</a></span></div></div>Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:44:28 +0000Rob Boston8667 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/fifty-years-of-freedom-celebrating-the-supreme-court-s-decision-against#commentsEllery's Epic Exploithttps://www.au.org/church-state/may-2013-church-state/featured/ellerys-epic-exploit
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>In the late 1950s, Pennsylvania law was very specific about the role of religion in public schools: Every morning, 10 verses from the King James Bible followed by the Lord’s Prayer would come booming over the public address system.</p><p>Pennsylvania wasn’t unique in this practice. More than 30 states had simi­lar laws on the books. Students of all faiths and philosophies were often com­pelled to participate in what were fundamentally Protestant forms of worship.</p><p>But there were always those who knew this wasn’t right. Among them was Ellery Schempp, who in 1956 was a 16-year-old junior at Abington High School in the Philadelphia suburbs.</p><p>One day in November, Schempp brought a copy of the Quran to school with him and silently read it during the morning devotional. He refused to stop when a teacher ordered him to and was sent to the principal’s office and made to visit the guidance counselor.</p><p>“I wanted to show that there were other ‘holy books’ equally revered by other people,” Schempp said during a recent interview with <em>Church &amp; State</em>. “The Quran was merely by accident; I did not know a thing about Islam. But my friend George’s father had a copy on his bookshelf. </p><p>“It could just as easily have been some Hindu or Buddhist scripture” he added. “It was merely symbolic to challenge the view that Bible verses were unique; there were other claim­ants to ‘absolute truth’ and ‘sacred scripture.’”</p><p>That night at home, Schempp pecked out a letter to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on his dad’s typewriter, explaining what had taken place at his school. His timing could not have been better. As it happened, the ACLU had been interested in challenging school-imposed pray­er and Bible reading and believed the time was right.</p><p>A lengthy back-and-forth ensued be­tween the Schempp family and the ACLU. Although Ellery was a senior by the time the case was filed, his younger siblings Donna and Roger were still in Abington public schools. They would have legal standing to keep the case alive over the next few years.</p><p>Schempp had grown up with official school prayer. He remembers mumbling his way through the devotional exercises when he was little. As he got older, he began to question the school’s right to impose religion on students.</p><p>“By high school, well trained as we were, some awareness, thinking and teen rebellion arose,” Schempp said. “There was enormous pressure to conform as the greatest goal in life – to be ‘The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.’”</p><p>But Schempp had no desire to conform. He had been raised to ask questions, even about religion – not a common stance in Cold War America.</p><p>“It was one day when some kid read Genesis in 10th grade,” Schempp continued. “I thought, ‘This is nonsense; this does not fit with the science that I know.’ I began to pay more attention. </p><p>He mentioned his concern to some of his friends and most of them shared his apprehension.</p><p>“Then,” Schempp recalls, “I began to notice that Catholic kids actually recited a different version of the Lord’s Prayer. I thought this strange. And then I began to notice some of my Jewish friends who were visibly upset when Christmas and Easter passages came up.”</p><p>Added Schempp, “Nobody wanted to rock the boat. But I bounced off my thoughts with several friends. Many agreed – mostly because the devotions were ‘meaningless,’ and sometimes ridiculous or offensive.”</p><p>So Schempp decided to go ahead and rock the boat. His legal challenge, <em>School District of Abington Township v. Schempp</em>, went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, resulting in a landmark ruling striking down coercive, school-sponsored forms of prayer and Bible reading in public schools.</p><p>The decision, which will mark its 50th anniversary on June 17, still reverberates today every time there is a conflict over religion in public schools.</p><p>The <em>Schempp </em>ruling has been cited countless times by lower courts. The precedent it established – that public schools don’t have the right to sponsor religious exercises and pressure students to take part in them – has resurfaced in virtually every church-state case focusing on religion in public schools since. Public schools were powerfully affected.</p><p>But at the same time, the <em>Schempp</em> decision has spawned a great deal of confusion. To this day, many Americans persist in believing that the ruling banned all forms of religious activity in public schools, even vol­un­tary ones.</p><p>“<em>Schempp</em> has to be one of the most misunderstood cases in the history of the court,” said Stephen D. Solomon, who teaches First Amendment law at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. “Some conservatives have created an echo chamber by continually insisting that the Supreme Court kicked God out of the public schools. Their voices have been so loud and so persistent for so long that they’ve created a public perception at odds with what the <em>Schempp</em> decision really said.</p><p>“They’ve obscured the fact that <em>Schempp</em> was a near-unanimous decision, agreed upon by both liberals and conservatives on the court – and that it permits students to pray voluntarily and allows public schools to teach about religion in a nonsectarian way,” added Solomon, author of the 2007 book <em>Ellery’s Protest: How One Young Man Defied Tradition and Sparked the Battle Over School Prayer</em>. “There have been few journalists and other commentators who have tried to set the record straight.”</p><p>The decision did indeed spark a backlash, and its shock waves are still being felt today. Religious Right leaders and their political allies have never made their peace with the <em>Schempp</em> ruling and have worked for five decades now to undermine it or nullify it outright through a constitutional amendment. Although these efforts have failed, groups like Americans United call for constant vi­gi­lance, aware that a public school system that welcomes all is a prime target for the Religious Right.</p><p>How did this important case come about? Although Ellery was willing to challenge religious activity in school, he wouldn’t have had the courage to see it through without the support of his family.</p><p>The Schempps, led by parents Ed and Sidney, were active in many causes. Long-time attendees of a Unitarian congregation, they fought for social justice at a time when many Americans looked askance at non-conformists who dared to challenge the power of the state.</p><p>The Schempps won the case at the lower levels of federal court, but Pennsylvania legislators were determined to save the religious practices. They hastily passed a law allowing students to opt out of the morning devotionals, but an appeals court nullified this scheme as well. Officials at Abington appealed the case to the Supreme Court.</p><p>A Philadelphia lawyer, Henry W. Sawyer III, argued the case for the Schempps on a pro bono basis. Sawyer, who worked with the ACLU, knew the case would be unpopular in some circles but took it on anyway.</p><p>If Sawyer and the Schempps were worried about the outcome of the case, their anxiety was eased somewhat by the 1962 high court ruling in <em>Engel v. Vitale</em>. In that decision, the court ruled 6-1 that recitation of an official school prayer written by education officials in New York was unconstitutional.</p><p>The <em>Engel</em> decision was a strong indication that the religious exercises being challenged in the <em>Schempp</em> case would face tough sledding. Indeed, when the Supreme Court issued its decision on June 17, 1963, it was lopsided. School-sponsored prayer and Bible reading were declared unconstitutional by an 8-1 vote.</p><p>Justice Tom Clark penned the majority opinion. In his decision, Clark cited several previous high court rulings that mandated government neutrality on matters of theology.</p><p>This neutrality, Clark wrote, “stems from a recognition of the teachings of history that powerful sects or groups might bring about a fusion of governmental and religious functions or a concert or dependency of one upon the other to the end that official support of the State or Federal Government would be placed behind the tenets of one or of all orthodoxies.”</p><p>Clark also noted that religious freedom means “the right of every person to freely choose his own course with reference thereto, free of any compulsion from the state.”</p><p>But Clark was careful to point out that nothing in the ruling would bar objective discussion about religion in school classrooms.</p><p>“[I]t might well be said that one’s education is not complete without a study of comparative religion or the history of religion and its relationship to the advancement of civilization,” observed Clark. “It certainly may be said that the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities. Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.”</p><p>The sole dissenter in the case was Justice Potter Stewart. Stewart, who had also dissented in the <em>Engel</em> case, wrote that he considered the religious exercises voluntary and employed an argument still favored by the Religious Right today – that the First Amendment was merely intended to block the establishment of a national church.</p><p>Ellery had graduated by the time the ruling was issued, but his younger siblings kept the case going. The entire family attended the oral argument, and Schempp remembers crashing at a friend’s D.C. apartment and sleeping on the floor.</p><p>On the day the ruling came down, Schempp, by then newly married, was driving across the country with his bride. They heard the news on the radio, pulled off the highway and stopped at the first motel they came to and begged the clerk to let them watch the evening news. There was no television in the lobby of that motel, so the clerk sent them to one nearby.</p><p>Although the family kept a low profile during the case, they had to deal with some occasional harassment and hate mail. </p><p>“We received about 5,000 letters, roughly one-third supporting us, one-third opposing in reasonable terms and one-third hateful and vituperative,” Schempp said. “My parents answered every letter with a return address. We were accused of being everything the writer hated – commies, Nazis, Catho­lics or Jews. Some were newspaper pictures smeared with excrement.” </p><p>For Ellery, the biggest risk while the case was in the lower courts was incurring the wrath of W. Eugene Stull, the principal of Abington High School. Stull, a Methodist minister, supported the religious exercises in school and was incensed at Schempp’s lawsuit.</p><p>After the legal challenge was filed, Stull tried to hit Ellery where it would hurt the most by disrupting his plans for higher education. Labeling Ellery a “troublemaker,” Stull sent letters to the universities that Schempp had applied to, warning them not to enroll him.</p><p>Stull even telephoned officials at Tufts University in Boston after learning that Ellery had been accepted there, urging them to reverse their deci­sion. (The ploy failed miserably. Schempp graduated from Tufts with honors earning degrees in physics and geology, and he went on to earn a Ph.D. in physics from Brown University. He was employed as a physicist for decades, and his research contributed to the implementation of Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanners.)</p><p>Undoubtedly, some of the hostility that might have been directed at the Schempp family was deflected to another school prayer protestor – Madalyn Murray O’Hair. O’Hair, at the time a resident of Baltimore, filed a similar lawsuit against devotional Bible reading in the public schools there.</p><p>O’Hair, an outspoken atheist, became a flashpoint for controversy. Her case, <em>Murray v. Curlett</em>, reached the Supreme Court at the same time as the Schempp family’s challenge. Since the two cases raised identical issues, the high court consolidated the pair and heard them jointly.</p><p>The two families had decidedly different approaches to publicity. The Schempps didn’t exactly shun it, but they tended to keep a low profile. O’Hair, by contrast, cultivated media appearances and went on to write a book about her case. She used the publicity she garnered to launch a national organization, American Atheists.</p><p>Thanks to O’Hair’s visibility, the issue of school prayer became closely associated with her in the public mind. Today, many people think of O’Hair when the issue of school prayer comes up. The Schempps tend to get overlooked – even though both families played an equally important role.</p><p>Following the <em>Schempp </em>ruling, an enormous political backlash erupted. By the mid-1960s, more than 100 constitutional amendments designed to “restore” prayer to public schools had been introduced in Congress.</p><p>The drive for an amendment stalled in the House of Representatives, but a proposal in the Senate introduced by U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen (R-Ill.) began to gather steam, and for a time it looked like it might pass.</p><p>Dirksen’s amendment enjoyed bipartisan support and was backed in part by a band of conservative Southern Democrats who were still smarting from the Supreme Court’s rulings striking down racial segregation. They looked at a school prayer amendment as a way to put the court in its place.</p><p>In his book <em>School Prayer: The Court and Congress</em>, the late church-state scholar Robert S. Alley explained how some behind-the-scenes political maneuvering derailed the Dirksen amendment. Alley noted that U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh (D-Ind.), who opposed the amendment, knew that some senators fretted over voting against it for fear of being tarred as anti-religious. Bayh put forth a symbolic resolution affirming the importance of religion in public life to give the wavering senators cover.</p><p>The gambit worked. When the prayer amendment came up for a vote, it received a simple majority but fell short of the two-thirds super-majority constitutional amendments need to pass.</p><p>School prayer amendments continued to be introduced throughout the 1970s, but none got a serious hearing until President Ronald W. Reagan took office. During his 1980 campaign, Reagan courted the Religious Right in part by vowing to support a school prayer amendment. An amendment was duly introduced and came up for a vote in the Senate on March 20, 1984, where it fell 11 votes shy of the two-thirds majority.</p><p>In 1996, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, again courting the Religious Right, proposed a new school prayer amendment. Gingrich asked a House ally, U.S. Rep. Ernest “Jim” Istook (R-Okla.) to spearhead the project. Istook worked with a coterie of Religious Right political and legal groups to draft an amendment.</p><p>The proposal that emerged did much more than promote official prayer in public schools. It also would have guaranteed taxpayer aid to religious institutions and permitted the display of sectarian symbols by government. Dubbed the “Religious Freedom Amendment,” the amendment was put to a vote in the House on June 4, 1998. Although it secured a simple majority of 224-203, it fell 61 votes short of two-thirds.</p><p>No school prayer amendments have been introduced in Congress this year, but that doesn’t mean the issue is dead. State legislators continue to look for ways to promote school-sponsored prayer.</p><p>Last year, Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a bill designed to allow students to deliver “inspirational messages” – a euphemism for prayer – at school events. In Mississippi, a new law compels every public school district in the state to draft a policy on student-led prayer. (See “Religion Ruse,” page 11.)</p><p>Proposals like this show that the issue is still very much alive. Although much has changed in American society since Ellery Schempp launched his protest against school prayer in 1956, one thing hasn’t: Some people remain determined to use the public school system to inculcate sectarian views.</p><p>Schempp is equally determined to stop them. Over the years, he has remained a strong advocate for church-state separation. Schempp, who now lives in retirement in Medford, Mass., with his partner Arlene Germain, often speaks about his case at public events. Last year, he discussed it with an audience at Harvard Divinity School.</p><p>Schempp has even been honored by Abington High School. In 2002, he was elected to the school’s Hall of Fame. His listing on the school’s website notes his long list of achievements in physics and then goes on to point out that Schempp “Initiated school prayer suit against Abington which was eventual­ly decided by U.S. Supreme Court in 1963.”</p><p>The controversy over school prayer may still rage, but many analysts say the growing religious diversity in America has made official religious exercises in public schools increasingly impractical.</p><p> “Resistance to <em>Schempp</em> by school districts themselves is much less common than it was in the first decade after the decision, and the vast majority of school districts comply with the decision,” NYU professor Solomon said. “This country is so much more religiously diverse than it was even in 1963, and many people don’t want the animosity that would inevitably come with a return of state-run devotional activities in the public schools. They understand that there would be insurmountable conflicts over whose prayers and whose holy books would be used.” </p></div></div><a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><h3 >How A 16-Year-Old Pennsylvania Boy And His Family Won An Important Church-State Victory At The Supreme Court 50 Years&nbsp;Ago</h3><div class="field field-name-field-cs-department field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Featured</div></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/school-prayer">School Prayer</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/bibles-and-religious-texts-curricula">Bibles and Religious Texts in Curricula</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/religious-distributions-events-and-evangelism-during-school-day">Religious Distributions, Events and Evangelism during the School Day</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/legal-foundations-church-state-separation">Legal Foundations of Church-State Separation</a></span></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cs-issue field-type-node-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Magazine Issue:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><article id="node-8319" class="node node-church-state-issue clearfix">
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The <span class="cs-month field">May</span> <span class="cs-year field"><span class="date-display-single">2013</span></span> issue of <em>Church &amp; State</em>
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</div></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ellery-schempp">Ellery Schempp</a></span></div></div>Wed, 01 May 2013 15:00:00 +0000Timothy Ritz8321 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/church-state/may-2013-church-state/featured/ellerys-epic-exploit#commentsSex Scandal: Brave W. Va. Student Challenges Inaccurate Sexuality Lecturehttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/sex-scandal-brave-w-va-student-challenges-inaccurate-sexuality-lecture
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">A brave high school student has blown the whistle on a West Virginia public school&#039;s promotion of &#039;God&#039;s plan for sexual purity.&#039;</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Recently I had occasion to talk with Ellery Schempp, the plaintiff in the landmark 1963 school prayer and Bible reading case <em>Abington Township School District v. Schempp</em>. The 50th anniversary of that ruling is in June, and we’ll have a story about the case in the forthcoming May issue of <em>Church &amp; State</em>.</p><p>It’s not too much of a spoiler to share one story Ellery told me: After he filed a lawsuit against mandatory religious exercises at his suburban Philadelphia public high school, the principal was furious. The man actually called Tufts University, where Ellery had been accepted, and urged officials there to rescind their decision to admit him. Ellery, you see, was a “troublemaker.” (Tufts officials ignored the principal’s demands.)</p><p>Today another “troublemaker” is facing a similar situation. Katelyn Campbell, a 17-year-old senior at George Washington High School in Charleston, W.Va., <a href="http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201304110229">blew the whistle</a> on a guest speaker who was brought to her school to give what Campbell and many other students assert was an inaccurate and offensive talk about human sexuality – and allegedly her principal is also threatening to disrupt her higher education plans.</p><p>The speaker, <a href="http://www.pamstenzel.com/">Pam Stenzel</a>, is a fundamentalist Christian whose only qualifications are that she has a degree in psychology from Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Liberty University and spent time working at an anti-abortion counseling center in Minnesota. </p><p>During her remarks at Washington High last week, Stenzel steered clear of overt religious content but, according to several students who were there, launched into an anti-birth control rant.</p><p>At one point she told young women, “If you take birth control, your mother probably hates you” and added, “I could look at any one of you in the eyes right now and tell if you’re going to be promiscuous.”</p><p>A flyer promoting the event reportedly said that Stenzel would discuss “God's plan for sexual purity.”</p><p>In a series of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFYPigFlp7w" target="_blank">videos on YouTube</a>, Stenzel makes a number of absurd claims. She asserts that using contraceptives makes a woman “10 times more likely to contract a disease…or end up sterile or dead.” In one video, she warned that, “Sex could damage you for the rest of your life” and that it could lead to “scarred fallopian tubes and cancer…You need to ask Jesus for forgiveness.” She also asserted that abortions can lead to anorexia, bulimia and cutting behaviors and that condoms aren’t safe.</p><p>Stenzel was brought to the school by <a href="http://www.believeinwv.org/">Believe in West Virginia</a>, an organization that describes itself as “a Christ-centered catalyst helping transform the economic, political, social and spiritual environment of West Virginia, thereby communicating hope and a brighter future for all.”</p><p>Campbell called a press conference, during which she urged Principal George Aulenbacher to apologize for exposing the students to a fear-based, inaccurate message. She’s also seeking an injunction to prevent Aulenbacher from retaliating against her for whistle-blowing.</p><p>According to Campbell’s legal complaint, Aulenbacher was angry at her for going to the media. The <em>Charleston Gazette</em> reported that in her complaint, Campbell asserts that the principal <a href="http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201304150062?page=1">threatened to call Wellesley College</a>, where Campbell has been accepted, allegedly saying to her, “How would you feel if I called your college and told them what bad character you have and what a backstabber you are?”</p><p>Campbell, who is vice president of the student body, told the newspaper, “I said, ‘Go ahead.’ He continued to berate me in his office. I’m not an emotional person, but I cried. He threatened me and my future in order to put forth his own personal agenda and made teachers and students feel they can’t speak up because of fear of retaliation.”</p><p>Based on <a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/katelyn-campbell-welcome-to-wellesley-college-we-think-you-ll-fit-right-in">this petition</a> that’s already circulating among Wellesley graduates, I’d say Aulenbacher’s heavy-handed threats won’t work.</p><p>I understand the school’s desire to keep down the teen pregnancy rate. We all share that goal. But allowing public schools to align with fundamentalist groups that push inaccurate, fear-based messages to youngsters isn’t the way to meet it. They’ve been doing that for years now, and it simply isn’t working. Sooner or later, teenagers figure out that not everyone who has sex drops dead as soon as the act is over.</p><p>The Guttmacher Institute <a href="http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2006/12/19/index.html">reported in 2006</a> that the vast majority of Americans – 95 percent – have sex before marriage. In the face of this reality, it seems a little unrealistic to continue to promote medically unsound views in public schools and bring in speakers who actually discourage teens from using birth control.</p><p>Ellery Schempp went on to graduate from Tufts, earn advanced degrees and make his mark in the field of physics. I suspect Campbell also has a bright future ahead of her.</p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/other-issues-regarding-religion-schools-and-universities">Other Issues regarding Religion in Schools and Universities</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/other-privacy-issues-including-end-of-life-matters-etc">Other Privacy Issues (including end-of-life matters, etc.)</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/katelyn-campbell">Katelyn Campbell</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/west-virginia">West Virginia</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/wellesley-college">Wellesley College</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/george-aulenbacher">George Aulenbacher</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/believe-in-west-virginia">Believe in West Virginia</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/pam-stenzel">Pam Stenzel</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ellery-schempp">Ellery Schempp</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/guttmacher-institute">Guttmacher Institute</a></span></div></div>Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:04:49 +0000Rob Boston8298 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/sex-scandal-brave-w-va-student-challenges-inaccurate-sexuality-lecture#commentsThe Bold And The Brave: Saluting Those Who Stand Up For The Church-State Wall https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/the-bold-and-the-brave-saluting-those-who-stand-up-for-the-church-state
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Over the years, many brave individuals have risked community backlash to stand up for separation of church and state.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>On Tuesday I flew to New England to speak to a humanist group in Worcester, Mass. It was a great event, and I pleased to see so many people venture out on a cold night to hear what I had to say.</p>
<p>As I surveyed the crowd from the podium, I spotted an old friend in the third row: Ellery Schempp.</p>
<p>That name may not mean much to some of our younger friends, but it should. Ellery was the plaintiff in a landmark <a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2011/02/robs-blog-2-10-11.pdf">school prayer case</a> that reached the Supreme Court. In <a href="http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&amp;vol=374&amp;invol=203"><em>Abington School District v. Schempp</em></a>, handed down in 1963, the high court declared mandatory, school-sponsored prayer and Bible reading in the public schools unconstitutional.</p>
<p>As I talked with Ellery after my speech, I was reminded how important people like him have been in the history of church-state separation. Our freedoms would have remained just words on parchment if Ellery and others hadn’t gone to court to end injustices.</p>
<p>[caption id="attachment_3255" align="alignnone" width="491" caption="Rob Boston and Ellery Schempp"]<a href="http://blog.au.org/alpha/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Rob-Boston-and-Ellery-Schempp.jpg"></a>[/caption]</p>
<p>Backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Ellery and his family fought in the courts for more than five years. When the Supreme Court released its decision on June 17, 1963, it was a lopsided 8-1 victory for the Schempps.</p>
<p>Activism like this often comes at a price. In Ellery’s case, he had to deal with a crass move by Abington High School’s principal, who disliked the case and actually wrote a letter to officials at Tufts University, where Ellery had been accepted, labeling him a troublemaker and urging them to deny him admission. (The pathetic ploy failed miserably. Ellery graduated from Tufts and went on to earn a Ph.D in physics from Brown University.)</p>
<p>Other plaintiffs in church-state cases have faced much worse. I was reminded of Joann Bell, a mother in Little Axe, Okla., who protested religious activity in her children’s public schools in 1981. Her home was <a href="http://blog.au.org/2008/11/25/hell-in-little-axe-an-oklahoma-moms-chilling-battle-with-religious-bigotry/">burned down</a> by an arsonist.</p>
<p>I was reminded of Jim McCollum, whose mother Vashti challenged in-school catechism classes in the late 1940s. Vashti was <a href="http://blog.au.org/2006/08/29/one_womans_figh/">fired</a> from her job, and Jim was assaulted in school after the lawsuit was filed.</p>
<p>I was reminded of Melinda Maddox, a plaintiff in an AU-sponsored lawsuit in Alabama against “Ten Commandments” judge Roy Moore. She returned home from her honeymoon to find that the windows of her house had been<a href="http://www.au.org/media/church-and-state/archives/2004/04/plucky-lindy.html"> shot out</a>.</p>
<p>Groups like Americans United do not have the power to come into a community and sue when there is a church-state violation unless we’re representing local people who are being negatively affected by the government’s actions. Over the years, many brave individuals have risked community backlash to stand up for separation of church and state. Our nation is a better, fairer place because of their activism.</p>
<p>Americans United members and supporters like you play an important role, too. You provide the funding that makes our work, including legal challenges, possible. You educate your communities about church-state separation. You organize and attend events and forums.</p>
<p>The Religious Right, of course, would rather that we don’t do any of these things. Its legal groups have even tired to deny us access to the courts on some occasions.</p>
<p>Attempts by would-be theocrats to shut us down are discouraging – but they will not succeed. As I looked over the crowd Tuesday night and as I chatted with Ellery afterwards, I was reminded that when people of different backgrounds, ages, faiths and philosophies work together to defend the church-state wall, great things are possible.</p>
<p>Ellery Schempp is living proof of that.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.au.org/media/press-releases/archives/2011/02/robs-blog-2-10-11.pdf"><br /></a></p>
</div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/religion-public-schools-and-universities">Religion in Public Schools and Universities</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/church-state-milestones">Church-State Milestones</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ellery-schempp">Ellery Schempp</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/inside-au">Inside AU</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/joann-bell">Joann Bell</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/massachusetts">Massachusetts</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/melinda-maddox">Melinda Maddox</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/prayer-public-schools">prayer in public schools</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/religion-public-schools-and-universities">Religion in Public Schools and Universities</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/roy-moore">Roy Moore</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/vashti-mccollum">Vashti McCollum</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/worcester">worcester</a></span></div></div>Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:13:15 +0000Rob Boston2162 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/the-bold-and-the-brave-saluting-those-who-stand-up-for-the-church-state#comments